Top marks from the mystery shopper!!!

Mystery shopping is a technique used extensively in the retail sector to help organisations understand their customers’ experiences and identify potential areas for improvement in the quality of service delivery.

It’s a process that the Praxis Retail Management Team at The Square shopping centre in Camberley have been deploying across the site for some time. The third-party mystery shopper embarks on a series of approaches each month, to test the reaction and response of the centre team via The Square’s phone service, website, social media accounts and through personal site visits.

From Q3’s perspective, it’s the site visits and face-to-face encounters that present the big challenge. The mystery shopper can turn up at any time and will be checking the centre surreptitiously for cleanliness, safety, wayfinding, availability of facilities, sources of information, and visibility of staff.

The mystery shopper may also approach one of the cleaning or security team randomly for help, information or assistance on any manner of subject. “Where are the toilets? Where can I get something to eat? What time do you close tonight?”

So, our team needs to be well briefed to have the right answers and trained in a way to ensure that requests are dealt with politely and efficiently. Recent result have proved very encouraging. During August and September, overall scores have exceeded 96% across all the channels tested by the mystery shopper, with some scores of 100% achieved for the face-to-face encounters.

Commenting on the positive feedback from the mystery shopper programme, Gavin Vidler Shopping Centre Manager said, “The Q3 cleaning and security staff out on the centre floor are our front-line partners responsible for personal, customer engagement. These results indicate that everyone is working as a team to ensure that customer experience at The Square is being delivered to a high standard, that will keep people returning time after time.”

Amy Hossin promoted to Finance Manager

We are delighted to announce that Amy Hossin has been promoted to Finance Manager of Q3’s Technical Services business, starting 1st November.

Since joining Q3, Amy has demonstrated strong financial skills, analysis and technical ability on top of her excellent people skills.

Commenting on the promotion, Business Director Lian Kockelbergh said, “Amy is in the early stage of her career but it has been obvious from the outset that she had amazing potential and a very bright future ahead. We are delighted to see her progress within the finance team and congratulate her on her new role!”

New Head office for Q3

We are pleased to announce that Q3 has moved to new head office premises, based near Reading:

Q3
Merlin House,
Brunel Road,
Reading,
West Berkshire, RG7 4AB

The move has been prompted by the substantial expansion of our business in the last couple of years and will meet our anticipated future requirements, as we continue to grow.

All clients and suppliers should now have received letters confirming the new address for correspondence, and our website contact page has also been updated. Phone numbers remain unchanged.

Coinciding with this move, we are also announcing that we have changed the trading name of Newtons Group Limited to Q3 Technical Services Limited. We ask that all clients previously dealing with this legal entity, please update their systems with this new name and postal address if they have not already done so.

Please note our registered office remains the same:
7/8 Innovation Place,
Douglas Drive,
Godalming,
Surrey, GU7 1JX

A full list of all Q3’s trading businesses may be found on the privacy notice on our website.

 

Greg Lindley – a facilities management success story

Q3 are excited to announce the promotion of Greg Lindley to the position of Soft Services Manager at our Alhambra Centre contract in Barnsley, with immediate effect.

Greg has been with Q3 since 2018, having joined via TUPE transfer as one the cleaning operatives. In 2020 Greg was promoted to Cleaning Manager having demonstrated exceptional dedication and strong leadership skills. As part of Greg’s continuous development, he has completed his IOSH Managing Safely certification whilst being first aid qualified. Greg has also completed his SIA and CCTV licence.

Going forward Greg will be responsible for both the cleaning and security service delivery at the Alhambra Centre, supported by Anita Colebrook, Cleaning Supervisor and Geoff Burgess, Security Supervisor.

Facilities Management provides opportunities for career development quite unlike any other sector. Q3 has always worked on a strategy of developing talent from within, and Greg is just one example of the success that comes from putting your faith in quality people.

Congratulations Greg on this well-deserved promotion.

Top score for Q3 at Double Eleven

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Q3 has secured a three plus two-year, hard services, contract with the Middlesbrough based game developer, Double Eleven.

Since it was formed in 2009, Double Eleven has grown to be one of the most trusted video game developers, working on popular games such as Rust Console Edition, Grounded and Prison Architect.

Q3 will be delivering a range of mechanical and electrical services to Double 11’s new Boho X flagship, head office. The Boho X building lies in the heart of Middlesbrough’s digital services quarter and is now home to around 300 employees.

Matthew Harris, Facilities Manager at Double Eleven said, “Q3 went into great detail during the site visit and has a proven delivery model. We liked their approach, and the fact that they will be delivering the contract through a local team.”

Commenting on the award, Martyn Freeman, CEO of Q3 Services, said, “We are delighted to be working with Double Eleven, and look forward to developing a strong partnership as they continue their exciting expansion.”

Q3 Retains Cyber Essentials Plus Accreditation

Q3 Services is pleased to announce that it has successfully renewed its Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, a Government-backed certification scheme that helps businesses guard against a range of cyber threats.

Working with Stock Services Limited, a leading IT consultancy which helps businesses achieve their IT goals, the company has undergone a rigorous three-month review process, to achieve the renewal. The certification applies to all Q3’s business operations in the UK and Channel Islands.

The accreditation is important, because as the Q3 business grows and we introduce new systems and technological services, we must ensure from the outset that the necessary processes and the correct security controls are in place to meet future business and technological needs.

Commenting on the Cyber Essentials Plus certification, Martyn Freeman, CEO of Q3, said, “We place a high priority on this aspect of our business because with growing daily threats of cyber disruption, it’s essential we have done all we can to reduce risk of cyber activity, improve compliance and governance, and enhance our general business reputation. Well done to Stock Services Ltd and the whole Q3 team involved in getting this accreditation over the line.”

Flourishing apprenticeships!

Apprentices

At the turn of the year, we featured some lovely stories profiling our growing band of Q3 apprentices.

Six months on, and we thought it would be great to look back on their progress, and some of the success stories, as well as seeing where our apprenticeship programme is heading next.

Paul Courtney completed his level 5 CIPD Associated diploma in People Management and is now embarking on a Level 3 Payroll Administration apprenticeship through Kiwi training in Southampton.

Fabio Goncalves who transferred from our Chelsea Harbour contract to be Assistant Contract Manager on our Salesforce contract, is embarking on the Level 4 FM apprenticeship, IWFM.

Waving the flag for equality, we also have, Annie Simkin, Compliance Manager and Emma Sheridan from our contract at The Square, Camberley, who are also both taking on the same apprenticeship qualification. Edona Lushja, Contract Support at Chelsea Harbour is undertaking her Level 3 FM apprenticeship, IWFM.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be talking to more of our apprentices about their personal development journeys through the FM landscape – stay tuned!

Danny Gardner – Operations Director, Technical Services.

We are pleased to welcome Danny Gardner to Q3 as Operations Director for our technical services business. Danny brings huge experience to this role, having worked for over two decades across building services and TFM/IFM service delivery in both the private and public sectors, specialising in hard services engineering, and HVAC within business-critical environments, and the FM sector generally.

Since starting his career, as an apprentice, trained electrical engineer working on the Jubilee Line extension project for London Underground, Danny has subsequently expanded his skills and expertise with many of the leading M&E organisations, working with both large corporates and SMEs across the UK and into Europe.

Danny describes himself as highly inquisitive. Once he gets a taste for something, he pursues it relentlessly until he feels he fully understands the mechanics and is confident he has mastered it. That approach applies to work or sport and his interests have expanded to include everything from Rubik’s cube, to golf, snooker and downhill mountain biking.

Based just outside London in Essex, Danny will be working to expand and develop Q3’s engineering and maintenance capabilities in existing technical services contracts and across our IFM portfolio. The objective is to enhance Q3’s technical services operational foundations to ensure they can support our future growth ambitions, including robust processes to underpin each stage of service delivery and compliance. Danny will also spearhead the expansion of our energy management and sustainability services offering and act as engineering lead on new contract mobilisations.

Speaking about his new challenge, Danny said, “If I had written the job description myself, I don’t think I could have created a role more matched to my skillsets and experience. I am really looking forward to meeting my colleagues and clients and getting the ball rolling.”

Contract extension for Q3 at Alhambra

Q3 is pleased to announce an extension to its contract with the Alhambra Shopping Centre in Barnsley.

The Shopping Centre in the heart of Barnsley Town Centre, is a community hub with around 40 leading retail brand units and an annual footfall of over 6 million visitors.

Alhambra was the first contract secured by Q3 following its formation in 2018. Originally covering provision of cleaning services, the contract was later expanded to include security in 2021.

The contract moved to Barnsley Council in 2023 when the council bought the lease to the centre, and it is a testament to the hard work and commitment of the onsite team of 20 Q3 people that the Council has now granted this contract extension through to February 2025.

Stuart Bellew, COO at Q3 said” We have a great team at the Alhambra, and I congratulate them on their effort and dedication in recent years, which will now ensure a continuation of the high levels of service to the client and the Barnsley public.”

Q3 wins IFM contract with leading fire safety products manufacturer

Q3 has successfully secured and mobilised an Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) contract with a leading, UK-based, fire safety systems company.

The contract sees Q3 deliver a range of services including cleaning, security, pest control, landscaping, as well as mechanical and electrical services to the HQ and production plant, where the company design and manufacture high-quality fire detection solutions for commercial and industrial applications.

This is a first-generation IFM outsourcing project, which is something Q3 has built a reputation for managing, as it grown to understand the intricacies and special demands of these contracts, as well as the need for close cultural alignment between client and provider.